Electricity Network to Give Customers Just Eat Vouchers During Power Cuts

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) will give households in southern England vouchers for the Just Eat app and website when their power goes out.

The network operator previously used welfare vans and community services to assist customers left without power for significant periods of time. Now those customers will be able to order takeaway, giving them a wider range of food options, catering to their dietary or religious needs.

SSEN trialled the partnership with Just Eat in the Thames Valley region, covering 980,000 customers in both urban and rural areas. Now it’s rolling out the scheme to all2.9 million customers served by the larger of its two distribution networks, in southern England.

Lisa Doogan, SSEN's head of customer service, said: "We know that having a power cut causes significant disruption to our customers' day, and one of those disruptions is the inability to cook food.

"We think it's important we make a power cut as comfortable as possible while our engineers work hard to restore the power, so we try to offer welfare provisions when the power cut is prolonged. 

"It's essential that we cater for our customers' needs and that involves adapting our services to ensure their specific dietary or religious requirements can be met.”

She added that the partnership would benefit small restaurants and takeaways in the region.

Matt Bushby, marketing director at Just Eat UK, said the popular app was “delighted” to be partnering with SSEN, to give customers access to a “wide range of food options for breakfast, lunch or dinner when they're not able to cook at home.”  

SSEN said the number of power cuts across the UK has fallen by half since 2002 and that it is investing in a resilient, smart network which will experience fewer faults of shorter duration. Across the network, electricity distribution networks have spent £100 billion in improving the reliability of their infrastructure since 1990, the Energy Networks Association (ENA) said.

However, blackouts still do occur, hitting households less than once every two years on average.

In August, one million customers in England and Wales lost power after lightning struck a wind farm in the Humber and gas-powered plant in Bedford nearly simultaneously.

In December the ENA urged customers to be prepared for possible power cuts, especially when adverse winter weather looms. Precautions customers can take to “Be Winter Ready” include keeping a torch stocked with fresh batteries, buying a battery-powered radio, keeping an eye on the weather forecast, and signing up to their energy network or supplier’s Priority Services Register, if eligible.